For as long as I can remember, I’ve liked sweets. You could pretty easily argue that more than like, I’ve loved them.
Pastries, candy bars, cookies, Tim Hortons Iced Capps… I could write a very (very) long list of favourites. And of course there are favourites. Some day I’ll run down a Top 10 list of chocolate/candy bars, although the very top choices there will be pretty interchangeable, because making a sugar-loving man choose an actual favourite among the likes of Skor bars, Cadbury Crunchie, Oh Henry! and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups is just mean.
And that’s not even getting into Top 10 pastries like a good danish.
And butter tarts.
My god.
In any case, this love/indulgence of many things sweet of course hasn’t gone unnoticed by my wife and teen, both of whom have at times over the years expressed some concern about it, with a well meant but not hugely effective, “You should probably cut down on that stuff.”
Well, my loves, tell it to my genes.
To clarify, I have zero insight about whether or not such things are genetic. I know addicting behaviours can be genetic, but sugar isn’t addicting in a clinical definition sense. But methinks there’s some genetic aspect to it regardless. It wasn’t lost on my wife at one particular Thanksgiving extended family dinner at an aunt’s house some time a bit pre-Covid that the amount and breadth of desserts that were brought for the potluck were creeping toward rivaling the volume of main course fare.
Many relatives on my mother’s side are very fond of sweets (not only sweets, I need to stress, nor even primarily above other enjoyed tastes, but the decades of evidence from family gatherings is abundant), and my grandfather on my mother’s side is the one who introduced me to putting a bit of maple syrup on vanilla ice cream. If you like both, you have to try those together. Just fantastic.
So yeah, there’s something genetic happening there.
This isn’t shirking responsibility and throwing my hands up as being a victim of circumstance, though. I of course know that sugar is bad for you. But knowing that, I still indulge in it (too much) anyway. That’s another point where its similarity/comparison to an addiction could be argued.
But… to try to be a good model for the teen, and to try to be healthier and so hopefully stick around this mortal coil longer to be with my wife and kiddo and other family and let’s not forget friends, I’ve emphatically agreed to take on their sugar reduction challenge: One week of keeping to a max of 20g of (added) sugar per day. My teen wanted to bump it up to 30g a day to take it easy on the old man, but I’m going to stick with the 20g limit so there’s no asterisk beside what I’m confident will be my decided accomplishment.
I should explain at this point that I don’t normally get up to 20g or even 30g a day as far as eating sugar goes. But drinking it? Particularly these days, that’s another deal. What I’d consider a small scoop of honey in my one tea today, plus indulging this afternoon in a tumbler of mixed iced chai tea syrup plus concentrate (over ice and mixed in with milk? Whoo, mama, that’s a tasty drink), plus my modest bit of marmalade on my toast with breakfast has already put me over 20g of added sugar for today.
So I’ll call this a scratch and start tomorrow, and just be smarter about what I add into what. I have stevia powder, for instance. Which is very sweet but has the bonus of not affecting blood sugar levels. So I’ll go back to using that instead of honey in my tea. That’ll be a big difference in itself.
And a smaller glass of iced chai indulgence. Or maybe not one at all?
And a smaller bit of marmalade on my toast.
These are all totally reasonable things, I just need to pay more attention to them, and I think I can nail the challenge for a full week for sure.
And I’m planning to push it even farther. The latest research says that new habits can be formed in anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, so if I can keep it up beyond their current one week scope, hopefully I can shake the sugar habit loose entirely.
And to be sure, it is something of a habit. The problem is that choices become habits and habits become a lifestyle. And before you know it, that’s just what you do. In my case, that’s too often a lack of turning down sweets when they’re available. If I can stick with this challenge for a good, long while — by definition, having to learn to remind myself to make better choices — hopefully those lessons will stick.
This doesn’t mean completely denying myself, of course. There have to be some exceptions made here and there.
After all, Reese’s recently announced that they’re going back to using real chocolate to use on their peanut butter cups.
I mean, come on… I’m only human.